NABARD Grade A and Development Assistant 2026 Guide: Exam Pattern, ESI and ARD Syllabus, Eligibility, Dates

NABARD exams at a glance

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an all-India apex organisation wholly owned by the Government of India. It recruits its officers and staff itself, through advertisements on nabard.org, and not through IBPS. The facts on this page are as per the Grade A advertisement No. 05/Grade A/2025-26 dated 8 November 2025, the Development Assistant advertisement No. 08/DA/2025-26 dated 17 January 2026, NABARD's information handouts for these exams and the notices on its Career Notices page.

Selection process

Assistant Manager in Grade 'A' (RDBS and Legal)

1. Online application on nabard.org, for one post and one discipline only. For the 2025 cycle the window was 8 to 30 November 2025. If a candidate applies more than once for Grade A (RDBS), only the last application counts. SC, ST, OBC and PWBD candidates can ask for free online pre-recruitment training in the application form.
2. Phase-I: Preliminary Examination. An online objective test of 200 questions and 200 marks in 120 minutes. Reasoning, English Language, Computer Knowledge, Quantitative Aptitude and Decision Making form the qualifying section. General Awareness, Eco & Soc. Issues and Agriculture & Rural Development form the merit section. Candidates are shortlisted for the Main Examination on merit-section marks only, discipline-wise, up to 25 per vacancy.
3. Phase-II: Main Examination. Paper I (General English, descriptive) is held in the morning and Paper II in the afternoon. Descriptive answers are typed on a keyboard. Cut-offs apply to each test and to the total.
4. Phase-III: Psychometric Test. An MCQ-based test of 90 minutes. It is mandatory, and only candidates who take it are called for the interview.
5. Interview of 50 marks, in Hindi or English, for up to 3 candidates per vacancy.
6. Final merit is on the Main Examination and the interview taken together. Preliminary marks are not added. On equal totals, the candidate with more marks in the Main ranks higher, then the one with the higher qualification or more marks in graduation, then the older candidate.
7. Appointment is on probation for 2 years, which the Bank may extend by up to 1 year. Officers can be posted anywhere in India.

Assistant Manager (Protocol & Security Service) has no Main Examination. It has one online test of 200 marks in 120 minutes, the Psychometric Test and a 50-mark interview. Its final merit is on the online test and the interview together.

Development Assistant and Development Assistant (Hindi)

1. Online application for the vacancies of one State only. For the 2026 cycle the window was 17 January to 3 February 2026. A candidate can apply for only one of the two posts.
2. Preliminary Examination. It is qualifying only. A candidate must pass each test, and up to 25 candidates per vacancy are called for the Main Examination.
3. Main Examination. Four objective tests and a descriptive English test. A State-wise merit list is made on the Main marks, objective and descriptive added together. Preliminary marks are not added.
4. Language Proficiency Test (LPT) in the official language of the State, for selected and wait-listed candidates. It is qualifying. Candidates who passed that language in class 10 or 12 are exempt on submitting the mark sheet. A candidate who fails the LPT is not appointed.
5. Appointment follows biometric verification, medical fitness and document checks. A wait list of up to 50% of the vacancies (at least three) is kept for up to one year. Ties are broken by the higher qualification, then graduation marks, then age.

Exam pattern

Grade A (RDBS and Legal): Phase-I Preliminary

There is no separate timer for each test; the 120 minutes cover all eight. Every question has five options. All tests except English Language are in Hindi and English. Each wrong answer costs one-fourth of the question's marks.

Grade A (RDBS and Legal): Phase-II Main

In the objective part of Paper II, some questions carry 2 marks and some 1 mark. The descriptive part starts after the 30 minutes of the objective part, and candidates cannot switch back. Paper II answers can be typed in English or Hindi on a Remington or Inscript keyboard. Paper I is in English only and tests essay, précis, comprehension and business or office correspondence. For the 13 specialist disciplines and for Legal, Paper II is a stream-specific paper with the same structure.

Grade A (Protocol & Security Service): online examination

Development Assistant: Preliminary

Development Assistant: Main

Each test has its own timer. In the descriptive test the essay carries 20 marks (one of three topics), the report or letter 15 marks (one of two) and the précis 15 marks. For Development Assistant (Hindi), the Preliminary has a Test of Professional Knowledge (Hindi/English) of 30 marks in place of Numerical Ability. Its Main has Reasoning (20 marks, 25 minutes), Professional Knowledge (50 marks, 35 minutes), General Awareness (40 marks, 25 minutes), Computer Knowledge (40 marks, 20 minutes) and the same descriptive English test.

General Awareness, ESI and ARD syllabus

The Grade A advertisement prints an illustrative syllabus for Paper II of the Main Examination, and the Preliminary tests on Eco & Soc. Issues and Agriculture & Rural Development cover the same ground. The advertisement says the syllabus is indicative, not exhaustive. It also asks candidates to prepare current developments and Acts in each subject.

Economic & Social Issues (ESI)

• Nature of the Indian economy, economic reforms, globalisation and privatisation
• Inflation and its trends; poverty alleviation, employment generation and the measurement of poverty
• Population trends and population policy
• Agriculture, food security, and institutional and non-institutional agencies in rural credit
• Industrial and labour policy, regional imbalance and public sector enterprises
• Rural banking and financial institutions, and reforms in the banking and financial sector
• IMF, World Bank, WTO and regional economic co-operation
• Social structure, demographic trends, urbanisation, migration and gender issues; education, health and environment
• Social justice, positive discrimination, social movements, the Indian political system and human development
• Current economic and social issues

Agriculture & Rural Development (ARD)

• Agronomy, field crops, agro-climatic zones, cropping systems, dry land agriculture, seeds, weather, precision farming and organic farming
• Soil and water conservation, irrigation management and micro-irrigation
• Farm machinery and power, water harvesting, agro processing and storage
• Plantation and horticulture, animal husbandry and poultry, fisheries and forestry
• Agriculture extension and Krishi Vigyan Kendras
• Ecology and climate change: greenhouse gases, adaptation and mitigation, carbon credit, IPCC, UNFCCC, COP meetings, NAPCC and SAPCC
• Agricultural finance and marketing, food security and farm management
• Rural development: the rural economy and rural labour, handlooms, Panchayati Raj Institutions, MGNREGA, NRLM–Aajeevika, rural drinking water, Swachh Bharat, rural housing and PURA

General Awareness

Neither advertisement prints a topic list for General Awareness. The Development Assistant Main handout says the test measures awareness of past and present events. Its sample questions ask about GST, rural employment schemes and the New Development Bank.

Where each area sits on GK24 (guidance)

Agronomy, animal husbandry, fisheries and farm engineering go beyond general GK. Use the ARD list above as your checklist for them.

Eligibility and age limit

Both advertisements invite applications from Indian citizens.

Grade A (2025 advertisement)

Qualification and age are reckoned as on 1 November 2025. The final result of the qualifying degree had to be declared on or before that date.

Upper age relaxation for RDBS and Legal is 3 years for OBC and 5 years for SC and ST (where posts are reserved for them) and for eligible Ex-Servicemen. PWBD candidates get 10 years (13 for OBC and 15 for SC/ST). Relaxations are not cumulative.

Development Assistant (2026 advertisement)

Qualification and age are reckoned as on 1 January 2026.

• Development Assistant: Bachelor's degree in any discipline with 50% marks in aggregate (pass class for SC, ST, PWBD and Ex-Servicemen), and knowledge of word processing on a PC.
• Development Assistant (Hindi): Bachelor's degree in English or Hindi medium with Hindi and English as compulsory or elective subjects, or with Hindi and English as main subjects, with 50% marks (pass class for SC, ST, PWBD and Ex-Servicemen). The candidate must be able to translate from English to Hindi and back.
• Language: proficiency in the official language of the State applied for, that is, reading, writing, speaking and understanding it.
• Age: 21–35 years, born between 2 January 1991 and 1 January 2005.
• Relaxation: 5 years for SC and ST, 3 years for OBC and 10 years for PWBD (13 for OBC and 15 for SC/ST). Ex-Servicemen get their service in the Armed Forces plus 3 years, up to 50 years of age.

Important dates

Both cycles are complete. As on 25 September 2026, NABARD has not published a Grade A advertisement for 2026 or a new Development Assistant advertisement, so no exam date is announced. The Grade A Preliminary has fallen at different times of year: 16 October 2023, 1 September 2024 and 20 December 2025. Watch the Career Notices page on nabard.org for the next advertisement.

How to prepare General Awareness and ESI for NABARD

In Grade A Prelims, only the merit section decides who reaches the Main: General Awareness, ESI and ARD, 100 of the 200 marks. The other five tests only have to be cleared. The steps below are GK24's guidance, not NABARD's.

1. Read current affairs every day. GK24's daily current affairs for NABARD are written from official releases, in English and Hindi. Give priority to the economy, the Budget, RBI, agriculture, rural development schemes, climate and financial inclusion, and cover the 6 to 12 months before the exam.
2. Build the ESI base from GK notes. Read the Indian Economy notes for inflation, poverty, banking and international institutions. Read the Indian Polity notes for Panchayati Raj and social justice.
3. Use the ARD list as a checklist. Tick off each topic of the advertisement's ARD syllabus. Read the Geography and Environment notes for soils, irrigation, forests and climate change.
4. Practise timed quizzes. Grade A Prelims gives 120 minutes for 200 questions with no sectional timer, so fix an order for the tests and practise it. Leave a question you do not know, because a wrong answer costs a quarter of its marks.
5. Solve previous-year questions. NABARD does not publish its papers, so use the verified questions on this exam's PYQ page and the sample questions in NABARD's handouts.
6. Write for the Main. Grade A Main has 150 descriptive marks out of 200. Practise typed answers on the schemes and issues you read about.
7. For Development Assistant, General Awareness comes only in the Main (50 marks in 25 minutes). Prepare it alongside the Prelims subjects, not after them.

Posts and pay

Grade A vacancies in the 2025 advertisement

Seven of the 85 RDBS vacancies are reserved for PWBD candidates. Development Assistant vacancies were State-wise. Maharashtra (including Head Office, Mumbai) had the most with 48, then Uttar Pradesh with 11 and Madhya Pradesh with 10. The three Development Assistant (Hindi) vacancies were in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra (Head Office) and Tamil Nadu.

Pay as printed in the advertisements

Grade A officers also get Dearness Allowance, Local Compensatory Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Grade Allowance. Development Assistants get Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, City Compensatory Allowance and Transport Allowance. Both posts come under the defined-contribution New Pension Scheme (NPS), with gratuity and group term insurance. Perquisites include accommodation subject to availability, medical reimbursement, Leave Travel Concession and loans at concessional rates. Development Assistants are first posted in the office they applied for. Both Grade A officers and Development Assistants can be transferred anywhere in India.